Judge: MD Colleges Have 'Segregative Effects'

Judge: MD Colleges Have 'Segregative Effects'

Attorneys representing historically black colleges said
Tuesday they hope Maryland will embrace mediation to create high-demand
academic programs at the schools, now that a federal judge has ruled the state
is violating desegregation law by perpetuating the duplication of programs at
predominantly white colleges.

The 60-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake
found that the state's policy is setting back efforts to attract students of
all races to historically black colleges. It comes after years of debate in
Maryland, where all four of the state's historically black colleges are a short
distance away from at least one traditionally white college.

Efforts in the Legislature to address competing MBA programs
at Morgan State University, which is a traditionally black school in Baltimore,
and nearby Towson University, a traditionally white school, have failed to
pass, because opponents argued that the legislation would have enabled one
state university to sue another, a change critics said would create a bad
precedent.

A coalition of plaintiffs sued in 2006, and a trial took place
in federal court last year.

"It's been a long fight with the state of Maryland in
this case, and now that we have the ruling we hope that they're willing to sit
down at the table and come up with some effective ways to remedy the
constitutional violation," said Jon, Greenbaum, the chief counsel of the
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The committee was a leading
plaintiff in the case.

Samantha Kappalman, a spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O'Malley,
said the judge's ruling noted that funding for capital and operating budgets
for historically black colleges has been fair.

"In addition, we are proud of the multitude of
excellent academic programs that exist throughout the state, and we
respectfully disagree with the court's conclusions regarding duplication,"
Kappalman said.

She said the state is reviewing the ruling and considering
all options, including mediation.

The Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland cheered the ruling.

"The Legislative Black Caucus encourages the governor
and the administration to move swiftly, with an eye towards justice and
fairness in the mediation phase of this litigation," said Del. Aisha
Braveboy, a Prince George's County Democrat who is the caucus chair.

Blake noted in her ruling Monday that during the 1960s and
1970s Maryland's historically black colleges began offering unique, high-demand
programs and attracted significant numbers of white graduates, but the trend
did not continue.

"Rather than building on that progress, however,
Maryland made very large investments in (traditionally white institutions),
particularly newly created Towson and (University of Maryland Baltimore
County), that undermined preliminary gains in desegregation," the judge wrote.
"These investments included further duplication of programs at already
existing TWIs and creating new public institutions in geographic proximity to
existing HBIs."

The judge cited a study that found Maryland's HBIs have only
11 unique high-demand programs, while the traditionally white institutions have
122. The judge also noted that between 2001 and 2009, 18 new programs at
traditionally white institutions unnecessarily duplicated programs at HBIs, 13
of which were high-demand. As a result, the judge wrote, the state never
dismantled duplicated programs that facilitated segregation - and has even
maintained policies and practices that have made the problem worse.

"The state offered no evidence that it has made any
serious effort to address continuing historic duplication," Blake wrote.
"Second, and even more troubling, the state has failed to prevent
additional unnecessary duplication, to the detriment of the HBIs."

The judge specifically cites the joint University of
Baltimore and Towson MBA program, which was developed in 2005 over Morgan
State's objection, as an example of the state failing to address the program
duplication problem.

Blake also wrote that collaboration between traditionally
white schools and traditionally black colleges can address the problem. For
example, she noted that the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a
traditionally black college, and Salisbury University, a traditionally white
one, have telling demographics. As of 2009, UMES had a student population that
was 77.6 percent black and 13.3 percent white. That, she wrote, makes it
significantly more desegregated than its three HBI counterparts, which had
white populations between roughly 1 and 4 percent.

Blake noted a study that found only 9 percent of the
programs at UMES were unnecessarily duplicated.

"This lack of duplication is not an accident; it is the
result of a strong collaborative partnership between UMES and Salisbury and it
demonstrates that unnecessary duplication can be eliminated," Blake wrote.